comprehension of what Zack was telling him. Zack glared into his vacant eyes, then backed him up against the post. "Now, Hommit, you listen to me reel good" Mahomet did listen, with stolid face, while Zack expounded the intricacies of "Give-away Night" at the moving picture shows.
"'Splain dat to 'em. Ev'y nigger gits a button—free, gratis fer nothin'. Be sho an' say dat. Dat's what de man always specify, in front o' de movin' picture show."
A less shifty gentleman than Mahomet Mansour might have been in a predicament. Or if Tombi had stayed on his job where Said had planted him, even then Mahomet must have failed to convey a straight message to the natives, for tricky Tombi would have twisted it to suit the purposes of Said. But the wrath of Allah fell upon Said when McDonald transferred Tombi to headquarters and sent that stupid lump Agha to interpret for the Hot Cat. Agha knew no English, but could blunder through a few simple sentences in Shilluk. Mahomet could not understand Shilluk, and Zack talked only United States talk. So there they stood, Agha being the middle man.
Fluent as he was, Mahomet hesitated to tackle a demonstration of "Give-away Night," until
